{"id":286611,"date":"2019-09-18T18:52:02","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T22:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=286611"},"modified":"2023-11-08T20:30:41","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T01:30:41","slug":"rex-tillerson-details-his-frustrations-on-iran-israel-russia-and-his-revamp-of-the-state-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2019\/09\/rex-tillerson-details-his-frustrations-on-iran-israel-russia-and-his-revamp-of-the-state-department\/","title":{"rendered":"Tillerson\u2019s exit interview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
\"Tillerson

Former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (third from left) offered his take on global leaders and hotspots, from Iran and Saudi Arabia to North Korea and Syria. He was joined by Robert Mnookin (from left), James Sebenius, and Nicholas Burns.<\/p>

Photo by Tom Fitzsimmons<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t

\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tNation & World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tTillerson\u2019s exit interview\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\tChristina Pazzanese\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\tThe former secretary of state details his frustrations on Iran, Israel, Russia, his revamp of the State Department, and his old boss\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\t\t

Rex Tillerson had seen and learned much in his 41-year career at ExxonMobil Corp., and some of it proved useful in his 13 months as U.S. secretary of state.\u00a0 But in the end, most of the thorniest challenges the former chairman of the multinational oil giant faced had more to do with his relationship with his boss, President Donald Trump, than with the complexities of geopolitics.<\/p>\n

That was the overarching message from Tillerson who visited Harvard Tuesday for a private talk about his time as the nation\u2019s top diplomat, a probing 90-minute discussion in which he spoke fluently on issues in global hotspots from North Korea, Syria, and Iran to the negotiating styles of world leaders, including Trump.<\/p>\n

In panel interview with Professors Nicholas Burns<\/a>, who runs the Future of Diplomacy Project<\/a> at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), Robert Mnookin<\/a>, faculty chair emeritus<\/em> of the Program on Negotiation<\/a> at Harvard Law School (HLS), and James Sebenius<\/a>, who heads the Harvard Negotiation Roundtable at Harvard Business School (HBS), Tillerson\u2019s daylong visit was organized by the American Secretaries of State Project, a joint initiative run by Burns, Mnookin, and Sebenius, who each lead programs on diplomacy and negotiation at all three Schools.<\/p>\n

Tillerson, who had extensive experience negotiating directly with heads of state as an oil executive, offered a number of informed assessments of the motivations and tactics used by Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he first met in 1999, China\u2019s president Xi Jinping and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose 10-year reign appears in doubt after Tuesday\u2019s election. He called Netanyahu \u201can extraordinarily skilled\u201d politician and diplomat, albeit \u201ca bit Machiavellian,\u201d who forges good and \u201cuseful\u201d relationships with leaders and nations he anticipates he\u2019ll need at a future time.<\/p>\n

Tillerson said despite Israel\u2019s closeness with the U.S., \u201cIn dealing with Bibi, it\u2019s always useful to carry a healthy amount of skepticism in your discussions with him,\u201d recounting that Israel would share \u201cmisinformation\u201d to persuade the U.S. of something if necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did that with the president on a couple of occasions, to persuade him that \u2018We\u2019re the good guys, they\u2019re the bad guys.\u2019 We later exposed it to the president so he understood, \u2018You\u2019ve been played,\u2019\u201d said Tillerson. \u201cIt bothers me that an ally that\u2019s that close and important to us would do that to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he entered office, Tillerson, who had deep familiarity with leaders and issues in the Middle East, including conditions surrounding the Israel\/Palestine peace negotiations, said he thought there was a chance \u2014 finally \u2014 for peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did believe that we were at a moment in time where perhaps we could chart a way where the Arab world could support an outcome that the Palestinians might not think was perfect \u2014 and in the past, if it wasn\u2019t perfect, it didn\u2019t happen \u2014 but with enough encouragement, pressure from the Arab world, that we could get it close enough that the Palestinians would finally agree,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd in my view, it was a two-state solution.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t

\"Rex
\u201cEvery successful negotiation is defined as both parties leaving with an acceptable outcome," said Tillerson. \u201cIf you ever think about a negotiation as a win\/lose, you\u2019re going to have a terrible experience, you\u2019re going to be very dissatisfied, and not very many people are going to want to deal with you.\u201d Photo by Tom Fitzsimmons\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n

But his plans were hampered by a frosty relationship with President Trump, who solicited foreign policy advice from an array of outside sources and delegated several key portions of the portfolio, like drafting an Israeli\/Palestinian peace accord, to his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.<\/p>\n

So, in the end, Tillerson took a back seat on most issues involving the Middle East and served as an informal counselor, offering his input \u201cto help them identify obstacles or gaps to the [peace] plan to give it the highest chance of success,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Even though he is no longer in office Tillerson still keeps an eye on developments in the region. Asked what he would have recommended the U.S. do in response to the bombings on Saudi oil facilities, Tillerson said it was vital to wait until forensics can provide the best available information about who is responsible before taking any action, something he acknowledged \u201cmay be very hard to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no doubt we\u2019re going to find Iran\u2019s fingerprints on this attack, but we may not find their hands on it,\u201d he said, complicating a coalition response.<\/p>\n

Tillerson said the U.S. should take its case to the U.N. Security Council and build a global coalition for additional sanctions, rather than trying to implement unilateral sanctions, a move he said Iran can manage.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday morning, Trump said he will \u201csubstantially increase\u201d sanctions on Iran, though the administration did not formally declare Iran responsible.<\/p>\n

While he was often thwarted on foreign policy, Tillerson admitted his own missteps in undertaking a sweeping overhaul of the State Department and instituting a one-year hiring freeze, while the Trump administration slashed the budget from $55 billion to $35 billion in 2017. Sixty percent of top career diplomats resigned and applications for foreign service jobs fell by half during his term, according to American Foreign Service Association.<\/p>\n

Early on, it was \u201cpretty evident\u201d to him that much of the department was outmoded, from management practices and some of the systems to IT, and there was no clear delegation of authority, as he was used to in the private sector, so he had a hard time understanding \u201chow decisions are made, who\u2019s got authority to make what decisions and who\u2019s accountable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tillerson defended the freeze as a way to get managers to reassess their staffing needs and to avoid having new hires be fired in short order if the budget went further south. He also hoped the move would buy him time to lobby the Office of Management and Budget and \u201csee if I couldn\u2019t change their mindset on it where they were just slashing and burning it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifteen of the overhaul recommendations were funded by Congress and implemented, though there\u2019s more room for modernizing State Department management practices and embassies.<\/p>\n

Though necessary, Tillerson concedes the pace of his revamp may have been \u201ca little too aggressive\u201d for many \u201cand the level of change was so dramatic for a lot of people in what was already a very significant change from the Obama administration to the Trump administration, which was also dramatic and traumatic,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have a full appreciation probably for just how emotional it would become for some people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about his approach to negotiations, whether in the private sector or as the nation\u2019s top diplomat, Tillerson said he spends 80 percent of his time in preparation. A key to successful talks?\u00a0 Knowing precisely what your objectives as well as those of your counterparts. \u201cIt all goes back to people\u2019s hopes and aspirations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I did a lot of preparation to understand socially and historically, \u2018what journey have these people been on that brought them to this point and what are their hopes and their aspirations out of this possibility that they could have this great economic opportunity, or in the case of a diplomatic discussion, what are their hopes and their aspirations that one day they can have a peaceful border or stop the bombing,\u2019 \u201d said Tillerson. \u201cI\u2019ve seen more negotiations fall apart over an inability to understand those social aspects and those aspirations than fell apart over the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

In stark contrast to Trump\u2019s style, Tillerson emphasized transparency, predictability and trustworthiness as critical to his negotiating method, whether it\u2019s with allies or with enemies.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery successful negotiation is defined as both parties leaving with an acceptable outcome,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you ever think about a negotiation as a win\/lose, you\u2019re going to have a terrible experience, you\u2019re going to be very dissatisfied, and not very many people are going to want to deal with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tillerson admitted his own frustration with the nation\u2019s riven state. Asked by Burns what gives him hope these days, he said that it was America\u2019s continued evolution as a society, despite the painful, even \u201ctortuous\u201d times.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always believe deep in those words from Lincoln, that in our deepest, darkest moments, we were able to call upon \u2018the better angels of our nature\u2019 to overcome that which we thought was so divisive we could never find affection for one another again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watch with great anguish the mood of the country and the kind of rhetoric that goes on in public \u2026. [and] it pains me. It breaks my heart,\u201d said Tillerson. But I go back to Lincoln, \u201cand my great hope is that that is still defining of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Fitzsimmons","displayDetails":"","displayTitle":"","categoryId":1378,"mediaAlt":"Tillerson panel","mediaCaption":"Former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (third from left) offered his take on global leaders and hotspots, from Iran and Saudi Arabia to North Korea and Syria. He was joined by Robert Mnookin (from left), James Sebenius, and Nicholas Burns.","mediaId":286701,"mediaSize":"full","mediaType":"image","mediaUrl":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/TJF_6945.jpg","poster":"","title":"Tillerson\u2019s exit interview","subheading":"The former secretary of state details his frustrations on Iran, Israel, Russia, his revamp of the State Department, and his old boss","centeredImage":true,"className":"is-style-full-width-text-below","mediaHeight":1667,"mediaWidth":2500,"backgroundFixed":false,"backgroundTone":"light","coloredBackground":false,"displayOverlay":true,"fadeInText":false,"isAmbient":false,"mediaLength":"","mediaPosition":"","posterText":"","titleAbove":false,"useUncroppedImage":false,"lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"Tillerson panel\" height=\"1667\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/TJF_6945.jpg\" width=\"2500\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (third from left) offered his take on global leaders and hotspots, from Iran and Saudi Arabia to North Korea and Syria. He was joined by Robert Mnookin (from left), James Sebenius, and Nicholas Burns.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photo by Tom Fitzsimmons<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","innerContent":["<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"Tillerson panel\" height=\"1667\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/TJF_6945.jpg\" width=\"2500\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (third from left) offered his take on global leaders and hotspots, from Iran and Saudi Arabia to North Korea and Syria. He was joined by Robert Mnookin (from left), James Sebenius, and Nicholas Burns.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photo by Tom Fitzsimmons<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n"],"rendered":"<header\n\tclass=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-article-header alignfull article-header is-style-full-width-text-below centered-image\"\n\tstyle=\" \"\n>\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"Tillerson panel\" height=\"1667\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/TJF_6945.jpg\" width=\"2500\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (third from left) offered his take on global leaders and hotspots, from Iran and Saudi Arabia to North Korea and Syria. He was joined by Robert Mnookin (from left), James Sebenius, and Nicholas Burns.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photo by Tom Fitzsimmons<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t<div class=\"article-header__content\">\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\tclass=\"article-header__category\"\n\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\tNation & World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t<h1 class=\"article-header__title wp-block-heading \">\n\t\tTillerson\u2019s exit interview\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<div class=\"article-header__meta\">\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<address class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"author wp-block-post-author__name\">\n\t\tChristina Pazzanese\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-post-author__byline\">\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<time class=\"article-header__date\" datetime=\"2019-09-18\">\n\t\t\tSeptember 18, 2019\t\t<\/time>\n\n\t\t<span class=\"article-header__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t8 min read\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-header__subheading wp-block-heading\">\n\t\t\tThe former secretary of state details his frustrations on Iran, Israel, Russia, his revamp of the State Department, and his old boss\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n"},"2":{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"templateLock":false,"metadata":{"name":"Article content"},"align":"wide","layout":{"type":"constrained","justifyContent":"center"},"tagName":"div","lock":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t<p>Rex Tillerson had seen and learned much in his 41-year career at ExxonMobil Corp., and some of it proved useful in his 13 months as U.S. secretary of state.\u00a0 But in the end, most of the thorniest challenges the former chairman of the multinational oil giant faced had more to do with his relationship with his boss, President Donald Trump, than with the complexities of geopolitics.<\/p>\n<p>That was the overarching message from Tillerson who visited Harvard Tuesday for a private talk about his time as the nation\u2019s top diplomat, a probing 90-minute discussion in which he spoke fluently on issues in global hotspots from North Korea, Syria, and Iran to the negotiating styles of world leaders, including Trump.<\/p>\n<p>In panel interview with Professors <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hks.harvard.edu\/faculty\/nicholas-burns\">Nicholas Burns<\/a>, who runs the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.belfercenter.org\/project\/future-diplomacy-project\">Future of Diplomacy Project<\/a> at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), <a href=\"https:\/\/hls.harvard.edu\/faculty\/directory\/10592\/Mnookin\">Robert Mnookin<\/a>, faculty chair <em>emeritus<\/em> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pon.harvard.edu\/\">Program on Negotiation<\/a> at Harvard Law School (HLS), and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=6550\">James Sebenius<\/a>, who heads the Harvard Negotiation Roundtable at Harvard Business School (HBS), Tillerson\u2019s daylong visit was organized by the American Secretaries of State Project, a joint initiative run by Burns, Mnookin, and Sebenius, who each lead programs on diplomacy and negotiation at all three Schools.<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson, who had extensive experience negotiating directly with heads of state as an oil executive, offered a number of informed assessments of the motivations and tactics used by Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he first met in 1999, China\u2019s president Xi Jinping and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose 10-year reign appears in doubt after Tuesday\u2019s election. He called Netanyahu \u201can extraordinarily skilled\u201d politician and diplomat, albeit \u201ca bit Machiavellian,\u201d who forges good and \u201cuseful\u201d relationships with leaders and nations he anticipates he\u2019ll need at a future time.<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson said despite Israel\u2019s closeness with the U.S., \u201cIn dealing with Bibi, it\u2019s always useful to carry a healthy amount of skepticism in your discussions with him,\u201d recounting that Israel would share \u201cmisinformation\u201d to persuade the U.S. of something if necessary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey did that with the president on a couple of occasions, to persuade him that \u2018We\u2019re the good guys, they\u2019re the bad guys.\u2019 We later exposed it to the president so he understood, \u2018You\u2019ve been played,\u2019\u201d said Tillerson. \u201cIt bothers me that an ally that\u2019s that close and important to us would do that to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When he entered office, Tillerson, who had deep familiarity with leaders and issues in the Middle East, including conditions surrounding the Israel\/Palestine peace negotiations, said he thought there was a chance \u2014 finally \u2014 for peace.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did believe that we were at a moment in time where perhaps we could chart a way where the Arab world could support an outcome that the Palestinians might not think was perfect \u2014 and in the past, if it wasn\u2019t perfect, it didn\u2019t happen \u2014 but with enough encouragement, pressure from the Arab world, that we could get it close enough that the Palestinians would finally agree,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd in my view, it was a two-state solution.\u201d<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n\t\t<p>Rex Tillerson had seen and learned much in his 41-year career at ExxonMobil Corp., and some of it proved useful in his 13 months as U.S. secretary of state.\u00a0 But in the end, most of the thorniest challenges the former chairman of the multinational oil giant faced had more to do with his relationship with his boss, President Donald Trump, than with the complexities of geopolitics.<\/p>\n<p>That was the overarching message from Tillerson who visited Harvard Tuesday for a private talk about his time as the nation\u2019s top diplomat, a probing 90-minute discussion in which he spoke fluently on issues in global hotspots from North Korea, Syria, and Iran to the negotiating styles of world leaders, including Trump.<\/p>\n<p>In panel interview with Professors <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hks.harvard.edu\/faculty\/nicholas-burns\">Nicholas Burns<\/a>, who runs the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.belfercenter.org\/project\/future-diplomacy-project\">Future of Diplomacy Project<\/a> at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), <a href=\"https:\/\/hls.harvard.edu\/faculty\/directory\/10592\/Mnookin\">Robert Mnookin<\/a>, faculty chair <em>emeritus<\/em> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pon.harvard.edu\/\">Program on Negotiation<\/a> at Harvard Law School (HLS), and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=6550\">James Sebenius<\/a>, who heads the Harvard Negotiation Roundtable at Harvard Business School (HBS), Tillerson\u2019s daylong visit was organized by the American Secretaries of State Project, a joint initiative run by Burns, Mnookin, and Sebenius, who each lead programs on diplomacy and negotiation at all three Schools.<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson, who had extensive experience negotiating directly with heads of state as an oil executive, offered a number of informed assessments of the motivations and tactics used by Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he first met in 1999, China\u2019s president Xi Jinping and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose 10-year reign appears in doubt after Tuesday\u2019s election. He called Netanyahu \u201can extraordinarily skilled\u201d politician and diplomat, albeit \u201ca bit Machiavellian,\u201d who forges good and \u201cuseful\u201d relationships with leaders and nations he anticipates he\u2019ll need at a future time.<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson said despite Israel\u2019s closeness with the U.S., \u201cIn dealing with Bibi, it\u2019s always useful to carry a healthy amount of skepticism in your discussions with him,\u201d recounting that Israel would share \u201cmisinformation\u201d to persuade the U.S. of something if necessary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey did that with the president on a couple of occasions, to persuade him that \u2018We\u2019re the good guys, they\u2019re the bad guys.\u2019 We later exposed it to the president so he understood, \u2018You\u2019ve been played,\u2019\u201d said Tillerson. \u201cIt bothers me that an ally that\u2019s that close and important to us would do that to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When he entered office, Tillerson, who had deep familiarity with leaders and issues in the Middle East, including conditions surrounding the Israel\/Palestine peace negotiations, said he thought there was a chance \u2014 finally \u2014 for peace.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did believe that we were at a moment in time where perhaps we could chart a way where the Arab world could support an outcome that the Palestinians might not think was perfect \u2014 and in the past, if it wasn\u2019t perfect, it didn\u2019t happen \u2014 but with enough encouragement, pressure from the Arab world, that we could get it close enough that the Palestinians would finally agree,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd in my view, it was a two-state solution.\u201d<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n\t\t<p>Rex Tillerson had seen and learned much in his 41-year career at ExxonMobil Corp., and some of it proved useful in his 13 months as U.S. secretary of state.\u00a0 But in the end, most of the thorniest challenges the former chairman of the multinational oil giant faced had more to do with his relationship with his boss, President Donald Trump, than with the complexities of geopolitics.<\/p>\n<p>That was the overarching message from Tillerson who visited Harvard Tuesday for a private talk about his time as the nation\u2019s top diplomat, a probing 90-minute discussion in which he spoke fluently on issues in global hotspots from North Korea, Syria, and Iran to the negotiating styles of world leaders, including Trump.<\/p>\n<p>In panel interview with Professors <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hks.harvard.edu\/faculty\/nicholas-burns\">Nicholas Burns<\/a>, who runs the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.belfercenter.org\/project\/future-diplomacy-project\">Future of Diplomacy Project<\/a> at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), <a href=\"https:\/\/hls.harvard.edu\/faculty\/directory\/10592\/Mnookin\">Robert Mnookin<\/a>, faculty chair <em>emeritus<\/em> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pon.harvard.edu\/\">Program on Negotiation<\/a> at Harvard Law School (HLS), and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=6550\">James Sebenius<\/a>, who heads the Harvard Negotiation Roundtable at Harvard Business School (HBS), Tillerson\u2019s daylong visit was organized by the American Secretaries of State Project, a joint initiative run by Burns, Mnookin, and Sebenius, who each lead programs on diplomacy and negotiation at all three Schools.<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson, who had extensive experience negotiating directly with heads of state as an oil executive, offered a number of informed assessments of the motivations and tactics used by Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he first met in 1999, China\u2019s president Xi Jinping and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose 10-year reign appears in doubt after Tuesday\u2019s election. He called Netanyahu \u201can extraordinarily skilled\u201d politician and diplomat, albeit \u201ca bit Machiavellian,\u201d who forges good and \u201cuseful\u201d relationships with leaders and nations he anticipates he\u2019ll need at a future time.<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson said despite Israel\u2019s closeness with the U.S., \u201cIn dealing with Bibi, it\u2019s always useful to carry a healthy amount of skepticism in your discussions with him,\u201d recounting that Israel would share \u201cmisinformation\u201d to persuade the U.S. of something if necessary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey did that with the president on a couple of occasions, to persuade him that \u2018We\u2019re the good guys, they\u2019re the bad guys.\u2019 We later exposed it to the president so he understood, \u2018You\u2019ve been played,\u2019\u201d said Tillerson. \u201cIt bothers me that an ally that\u2019s that close and important to us would do that to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When he entered office, Tillerson, who had deep familiarity with leaders and issues in the Middle East, including conditions surrounding the Israel\/Palestine peace negotiations, said he thought there was a chance \u2014 finally \u2014 for peace.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did believe that we were at a moment in time where perhaps we could chart a way where the Arab world could support an outcome that the Palestinians might not think was perfect \u2014 and in the past, if it wasn\u2019t perfect, it didn\u2019t happen \u2014 but with enough encouragement, pressure from the Arab world, that we could get it close enough that the Palestinians would finally agree,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd in my view, it was a two-state solution.\u201d<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/image","attrs":{"sizeSlug":"full","align":"center","id":286674,"caption":"\u201cEvery successful negotiation is defined as both parties leaving with an acceptable outcome,\" said Tillerson. \u201cIf you ever think about a negotiation as a win\/lose, you\u2019re going to have a terrible experience, you\u2019re going to be very dissatisfied, and not very many people are going to want to deal with you.\u201d Photo by Tom Fitzsimmons","blob":"","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/TJFitz-1.jpg","alt":"Rex Tillerson speak with Nicolas Burns at right","lightbox":[],"title":"","href":"","rel":"","linkClass":"","width":"","height":"","aspectRatio":"","scale":"","linkDestination":"","linkTarget":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/TJFitz-1.jpg\" alt=\"Rex Tillerson speak with Nicolas Burns at right\" class=\"wp-image-286674\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u201cEvery successful negotiation is defined as both parties leaving with an acceptable outcome," said Tillerson. \u201cIf you ever think about a negotiation as a win\/lose, you\u2019re going to have a terrible experience, you\u2019re going to be very dissatisfied, and not very many people are going to want to deal with you.\u201d Photo by Tom Fitzsimmons\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t","innerContent":["\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/TJFitz-1.jpg\" alt=\"Rex Tillerson speak with Nicolas Burns at right\" class=\"wp-image-286674\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u201cEvery successful negotiation is defined as both parties leaving with an acceptable outcome," said Tillerson. \u201cIf you ever think about a negotiation as a win\/lose, you\u2019re going to have a terrible experience, you\u2019re going to be very dissatisfied, and not very many people are going to want to deal with you.\u201d Photo by Tom Fitzsimmons\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"],"rendered":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/TJFitz-1.jpg\" alt=\"Rex Tillerson speak with Nicolas Burns at right\" class=\"wp-image-286674\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u201cEvery successful negotiation is defined as both parties leaving with an acceptable outcome," said Tillerson. \u201cIf you ever think about a negotiation as a win\/lose, you\u2019re going to have a terrible experience, you\u2019re going to be very dissatisfied, and not very many people are going to want to deal with you.\u201d Photo by Tom Fitzsimmons\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"},{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>But his plans were hampered by a frosty relationship with President Trump, who solicited foreign policy advice from an array of outside sources and delegated several key portions of the portfolio, like drafting an Israeli\/Palestinian peace accord, to his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.<\/p>\n<p>So, in the end, Tillerson took a back seat on most issues involving the Middle East and served as an informal counselor, offering his input \u201cto help them identify obstacles or gaps to the [peace] plan to give it the highest chance of success,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Even though he is no longer in office Tillerson still keeps an eye on developments in the region. Asked what he would have recommended the U.S. do in response to the bombings on Saudi oil facilities, Tillerson said it was vital to wait until forensics can provide the best available information about who is responsible before taking any action, something he acknowledged \u201cmay be very hard to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have no doubt we\u2019re going to find Iran\u2019s fingerprints on this attack, but we may not find their hands on it,\u201d he said, complicating a coalition response.<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson said the U.S. should take its case to the U.N. Security Council and build a global coalition for additional sanctions, rather than trying to implement unilateral sanctions, a move he said Iran can manage.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday morning, Trump said he will \u201csubstantially increase\u201d sanctions on Iran, though the administration did not formally declare Iran responsible.<\/p>\n<p>While he was often thwarted on foreign policy, Tillerson admitted his own missteps in undertaking a sweeping overhaul of the State Department and instituting a one-year hiring freeze, while the Trump administration slashed the budget from $55 billion to $35 billion in 2017. Sixty percent of top career diplomats resigned and applications for foreign service jobs fell by half during his term, according to American Foreign Service Association.<\/p>\n<p>Early on, it was \u201cpretty evident\u201d to him that much of the department was outmoded, from management practices and some of the systems to IT, and there was no clear delegation of authority, as he was used to in the private sector, so he had a hard time understanding \u201chow decisions are made, who\u2019s got authority to make what decisions and who\u2019s accountable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson defended the freeze as a way to get managers to reassess their staffing needs and to avoid having new hires be fired in short order if the budget went further south. He also hoped the move would buy him time to lobby the Office of Management and Budget and \u201csee if I couldn\u2019t change their mindset on it where they were just slashing and burning it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fifteen of the overhaul recommendations were funded by Congress and implemented, though there\u2019s more room for modernizing State Department management practices and embassies.<\/p>\n<p>Though necessary, Tillerson concedes the pace of his revamp may have been \u201ca little too aggressive\u201d for many \u201cand the level of change was so dramatic for a lot of people in what was already a very significant change from the Obama administration to the Trump administration, which was also dramatic and traumatic,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have a full appreciation probably for just how emotional it would become for some people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked about his approach to negotiations, whether in the private sector or as the nation\u2019s top diplomat, Tillerson said he spends 80 percent of his time in preparation. A key to successful talks?\u00a0 Knowing precisely what your objectives as well as those of your counterparts. \u201cIt all goes back to people\u2019s hopes and aspirations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I did a lot of preparation to understand socially and historically, \u2018what journey have these people been on that brought them to this point and what are their hopes and their aspirations out of this possibility that they could have this great economic opportunity, or in the case of a diplomatic discussion, what are their hopes and their aspirations that one day they can have a peaceful border or stop the bombing,\u2019 \u201d said Tillerson. \u201cI\u2019ve seen more negotiations fall apart over an inability to understand those social aspects and those aspirations than fell apart over the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In stark contrast to Trump\u2019s style, Tillerson emphasized transparency, predictability and trustworthiness as critical to his negotiating method, whether it\u2019s with allies or with enemies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery successful negotiation is defined as both parties leaving with an acceptable outcome,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you ever think about a negotiation as a win\/lose, you\u2019re going to have a terrible experience, you\u2019re going to be very dissatisfied, and not very many people are going to want to deal with you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson admitted his own frustration with the nation\u2019s riven state. Asked by Burns what gives him hope these days, he said that it was America\u2019s continued evolution as a society, despite the painful, even \u201ctortuous\u201d times.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI always believe deep in those words from Lincoln, that in our deepest, darkest moments, we were able to call upon \u2018the better angels of our nature\u2019 to overcome that which we thought was so divisive we could never find affection for one another again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI watch with great anguish the mood of the country and the kind of rhetoric that goes on in public \u2026. [and] it pains me. It breaks my heart,\u201d said Tillerson. But I go back to Lincoln, \u201cand my great hope is that that is still defining of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n","innerContent":["\n<p>But his plans were hampered by a frosty relationship with President Trump, who solicited foreign policy advice from an array of outside sources and delegated several key portions of the portfolio, like drafting an Israeli\/Palestinian peace accord, to his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.<\/p>\n<p>So, in the end, Tillerson took a back seat on most issues involving the Middle East and served as an informal counselor, offering his input \u201cto help them identify obstacles or gaps to the [peace] plan to give it the highest chance of success,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Even though he is no longer in office Tillerson still keeps an eye on developments in the region. Asked what he would have recommended the U.S. do in response to the bombings on Saudi oil facilities, Tillerson said it was vital to wait until forensics can provide the best available information about who is responsible before taking any action, something he acknowledged \u201cmay be very hard to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have no doubt we\u2019re going to find Iran\u2019s fingerprints on this attack, but we may not find their hands on it,\u201d he said, complicating a coalition response.<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson said the U.S. should take its case to the U.N. Security Council and build a global coalition for additional sanctions, rather than trying to implement unilateral sanctions, a move he said Iran can manage.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday morning, Trump said he will \u201csubstantially increase\u201d sanctions on Iran, though the administration did not formally declare Iran responsible.<\/p>\n<p>While he was often thwarted on foreign policy, Tillerson admitted his own missteps in undertaking a sweeping overhaul of the State Department and instituting a one-year hiring freeze, while the Trump administration slashed the budget from $55 billion to $35 billion in 2017. Sixty percent of top career diplomats resigned and applications for foreign service jobs fell by half during his term, according to American Foreign Service Association.<\/p>\n<p>Early on, it was \u201cpretty evident\u201d to him that much of the department was outmoded, from management practices and some of the systems to IT, and there was no clear delegation of authority, as he was used to in the private sector, so he had a hard time understanding \u201chow decisions are made, who\u2019s got authority to make what decisions and who\u2019s accountable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson defended the freeze as a way to get managers to reassess their staffing needs and to avoid having new hires be fired in short order if the budget went further south. He also hoped the move would buy him time to lobby the Office of Management and Budget and \u201csee if I couldn\u2019t change their mindset on it where they were just slashing and burning it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fifteen of the overhaul recommendations were funded by Congress and implemented, though there\u2019s more room for modernizing State Department management practices and embassies.<\/p>\n<p>Though necessary, Tillerson concedes the pace of his revamp may have been \u201ca little too aggressive\u201d for many \u201cand the level of change was so dramatic for a lot of people in what was already a very significant change from the Obama administration to the Trump administration, which was also dramatic and traumatic,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have a full appreciation probably for just how emotional it would become for some people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked about his approach to negotiations, whether in the private sector or as the nation\u2019s top diplomat, Tillerson said he spends 80 percent of his time in preparation. A key to successful talks?\u00a0 Knowing precisely what your objectives as well as those of your counterparts. \u201cIt all goes back to people\u2019s hopes and aspirations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I did a lot of preparation to understand socially and historically, \u2018what journey have these people been on that brought them to this point and what are their hopes and their aspirations out of this possibility that they could have this great economic opportunity, or in the case of a diplomatic discussion, what are their hopes and their aspirations that one day they can have a peaceful border or stop the bombing,\u2019 \u201d said Tillerson. \u201cI\u2019ve seen more negotiations fall apart over an inability to understand those social aspects and those aspirations than fell apart over the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In stark contrast to Trump\u2019s style, Tillerson emphasized transparency, predictability and trustworthiness as critical to his negotiating method, whether it\u2019s with allies or with enemies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery successful negotiation is defined as both parties leaving with an acceptable outcome,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you ever think about a negotiation as a win\/lose, you\u2019re going to have a terrible experience, you\u2019re going to be very dissatisfied, and not very many people are going to want to deal with you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson admitted his own frustration with the nation\u2019s riven state. Asked by Burns what gives him hope these days, he said that it was America\u2019s continued evolution as a society, despite the painful, even \u201ctortuous\u201d times.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI always believe deep in those words from Lincoln, that in our deepest, darkest moments, we were able to call upon \u2018the better angels of our nature\u2019 to overcome that which we thought was so divisive we could never find affection for one another again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI watch with great anguish the mood of the country and the kind of rhetoric that goes on in public \u2026. [and] it pains me. It breaks my heart,\u201d said Tillerson. But I go back to Lincoln, \u201cand my great hope is that that is still defining of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>But his plans were hampered by a frosty relationship with President Trump, who solicited foreign policy advice from an array of outside sources and delegated several key portions of the portfolio, like drafting an Israeli\/Palestinian peace accord, to his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.<\/p>\n<p>So, in the end, Tillerson took a back seat on most issues involving the Middle East and served as an informal counselor, offering his input \u201cto help them identify obstacles or gaps to the [peace] plan to give it the highest chance of success,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Even though he is no longer in office Tillerson still keeps an eye on developments in the region. Asked what he would have recommended the U.S. do in response to the bombings on Saudi oil facilities, Tillerson said it was vital to wait until forensics can provide the best available information about who is responsible before taking any action, something he acknowledged \u201cmay be very hard to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have no doubt we\u2019re going to find Iran\u2019s fingerprints on this attack, but we may not find their hands on it,\u201d he said, complicating a coalition response.<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson said the U.S. should take its case to the U.N. Security Council and build a global coalition for additional sanctions, rather than trying to implement unilateral sanctions, a move he said Iran can manage.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday morning, Trump said he will \u201csubstantially increase\u201d sanctions on Iran, though the administration did not formally declare Iran responsible.<\/p>\n<p>While he was often thwarted on foreign policy, Tillerson admitted his own missteps in undertaking a sweeping overhaul of the State Department and instituting a one-year hiring freeze, while the Trump administration slashed the budget from $55 billion to $35 billion in 2017. Sixty percent of top career diplomats resigned and applications for foreign service jobs fell by half during his term, according to American Foreign Service Association.<\/p>\n<p>Early on, it was \u201cpretty evident\u201d to him that much of the department was outmoded, from management practices and some of the systems to IT, and there was no clear delegation of authority, as he was used to in the private sector, so he had a hard time understanding \u201chow decisions are made, who\u2019s got authority to make what decisions and who\u2019s accountable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson defended the freeze as a way to get managers to reassess their staffing needs and to avoid having new hires be fired in short order if the budget went further south. He also hoped the move would buy him time to lobby the Office of Management and Budget and \u201csee if I couldn\u2019t change their mindset on it where they were just slashing and burning it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fifteen of the overhaul recommendations were funded by Congress and implemented, though there\u2019s more room for modernizing State Department management practices and embassies.<\/p>\n<p>Though necessary, Tillerson concedes the pace of his revamp may have been \u201ca little too aggressive\u201d for many \u201cand the level of change was so dramatic for a lot of people in what was already a very significant change from the Obama administration to the Trump administration, which was also dramatic and traumatic,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have a full appreciation probably for just how emotional it would become for some people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked about his approach to negotiations, whether in the private sector or as the nation\u2019s top diplomat, Tillerson said he spends 80 percent of his time in preparation. A key to successful talks?\u00a0 Knowing precisely what your objectives as well as those of your counterparts. \u201cIt all goes back to people\u2019s hopes and aspirations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I did a lot of preparation to understand socially and historically, \u2018what journey have these people been on that brought them to this point and what are their hopes and their aspirations out of this possibility that they could have this great economic opportunity, or in the case of a diplomatic discussion, what are their hopes and their aspirations that one day they can have a peaceful border or stop the bombing,\u2019 \u201d said Tillerson. \u201cI\u2019ve seen more negotiations fall apart over an inability to understand those social aspects and those aspirations than fell apart over the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In stark contrast to Trump\u2019s style, Tillerson emphasized transparency, predictability and trustworthiness as critical to his negotiating method, whether it\u2019s with allies or with enemies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery successful negotiation is defined as both parties leaving with an acceptable outcome,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you ever think about a negotiation as a win\/lose, you\u2019re going to have a terrible experience, you\u2019re going to be very dissatisfied, and not very many people are going to want to deal with you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson admitted his own frustration with the nation\u2019s riven state. Asked by Burns what gives him hope these days, he said that it was America\u2019s continued evolution as a society, despite the painful, even \u201ctortuous\u201d times.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI always believe deep in those words from Lincoln, that in our deepest, darkest moments, we were able to call upon \u2018the better angels of our nature\u2019 to overcome that which we thought was so divisive we could never find affection for one another again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI watch with great anguish the mood of the country and the kind of rhetoric that goes on in public \u2026. [and] it pains me. It breaks my heart,\u201d said Tillerson. But I go back to Lincoln, \u201cand my great hope is that that is still defining of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n"}],"innerHTML":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n\r\n\t\n\t\r\n\n\n<\/div>\n","innerContent":["\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n","\r\n\t","\n\t\r\n","\n\n<\/div>\n"],"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-global-padding is-content-justification-center is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n\n\n\t\t<p>Rex Tillerson had seen and learned much in his 41-year career at ExxonMobil Corp., and some of it proved useful in his 13 months as U.S. secretary of state.\u00a0 But in the end, most of the thorniest challenges the former chairman of the multinational oil giant faced had more to do with his relationship with his boss, President Donald Trump, than with the complexities of geopolitics.<\/p>\n<p>That was the overarching message from Tillerson who visited Harvard Tuesday for a private talk about his time as the nation\u2019s top diplomat, a probing 90-minute discussion in which he spoke fluently on issues in global hotspots from North Korea, Syria, and Iran to the negotiating styles of world leaders, including Trump.<\/p>\n<p>In panel interview with Professors <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hks.harvard.edu\/faculty\/nicholas-burns\">Nicholas Burns<\/a>, who runs the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.belfercenter.org\/project\/future-diplomacy-project\">Future of Diplomacy Project<\/a> at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), <a href=\"https:\/\/hls.harvard.edu\/faculty\/directory\/10592\/Mnookin\">Robert Mnookin<\/a>, faculty chair <em>emeritus<\/em> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pon.harvard.edu\/\">Program on Negotiation<\/a> at Harvard Law School (HLS), and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=6550\">James Sebenius<\/a>, who heads the Harvard Negotiation Roundtable at Harvard Business School (HBS), Tillerson\u2019s daylong visit was organized by the American Secretaries of State Project, a joint initiative run by Burns, Mnookin, and Sebenius, who each lead programs on diplomacy and negotiation at all three Schools.<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson, who had extensive experience negotiating directly with heads of state as an oil executive, offered a number of informed assessments of the motivations and tactics used by Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he first met in 1999, China\u2019s president Xi Jinping and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose 10-year reign appears in doubt after Tuesday\u2019s election. He called Netanyahu \u201can extraordinarily skilled\u201d politician and diplomat, albeit \u201ca bit Machiavellian,\u201d who forges good and \u201cuseful\u201d relationships with leaders and nations he anticipates he\u2019ll need at a future time.<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson said despite Israel\u2019s closeness with the U.S., \u201cIn dealing with Bibi, it\u2019s always useful to carry a healthy amount of skepticism in your discussions with him,\u201d recounting that Israel would share \u201cmisinformation\u201d to persuade the U.S. of something if necessary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey did that with the president on a couple of occasions, to persuade him that \u2018We\u2019re the good guys, they\u2019re the bad guys.\u2019 We later exposed it to the president so he understood, \u2018You\u2019ve been played,\u2019\u201d said Tillerson. \u201cIt bothers me that an ally that\u2019s that close and important to us would do that to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When he entered office, Tillerson, who had deep familiarity with leaders and issues in the Middle East, including conditions surrounding the Israel\/Palestine peace negotiations, said he thought there was a chance \u2014 finally \u2014 for peace.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did believe that we were at a moment in time where perhaps we could chart a way where the Arab world could support an outcome that the Palestinians might not think was perfect \u2014 and in the past, if it wasn\u2019t perfect, it didn\u2019t happen \u2014 but with enough encouragement, pressure from the Arab world, that we could get it close enough that the Palestinians would finally agree,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd in my view, it was a two-state solution.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/TJFitz-1.jpg\" alt=\"Rex Tillerson speak with Nicolas Burns at right\" class=\"wp-image-286674\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u201cEvery successful negotiation is defined as both parties leaving with an acceptable outcome," said Tillerson. \u201cIf you ever think about a negotiation as a win\/lose, you\u2019re going to have a terrible experience, you\u2019re going to be very dissatisfied, and not very many people are going to want to deal with you.\u201d Photo by Tom Fitzsimmons\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n<p>But his plans were hampered by a frosty relationship with President Trump, who solicited foreign policy advice from an array of outside sources and delegated several key portions of the portfolio, like drafting an Israeli\/Palestinian peace accord, to his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.<\/p>\n<p>So, in the end, Tillerson took a back seat on most issues involving the Middle East and served as an informal counselor, offering his input \u201cto help them identify obstacles or gaps to the [peace] plan to give it the highest chance of success,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Even though he is no longer in office Tillerson still keeps an eye on developments in the region. Asked what he would have recommended the U.S. do in response to the bombings on Saudi oil facilities, Tillerson said it was vital to wait until forensics can provide the best available information about who is responsible before taking any action, something he acknowledged \u201cmay be very hard to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have no doubt we\u2019re going to find Iran\u2019s fingerprints on this attack, but we may not find their hands on it,\u201d he said, complicating a coalition response.<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson said the U.S. should take its case to the U.N. Security Council and build a global coalition for additional sanctions, rather than trying to implement unilateral sanctions, a move he said Iran can manage.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday morning, Trump said he will \u201csubstantially increase\u201d sanctions on Iran, though the administration did not formally declare Iran responsible.<\/p>\n<p>While he was often thwarted on foreign policy, Tillerson admitted his own missteps in undertaking a sweeping overhaul of the State Department and instituting a one-year hiring freeze, while the Trump administration slashed the budget from $55 billion to $35 billion in 2017. Sixty percent of top career diplomats resigned and applications for foreign service jobs fell by half during his term, according to American Foreign Service Association.<\/p>\n<p>Early on, it was \u201cpretty evident\u201d to him that much of the department was outmoded, from management practices and some of the systems to IT, and there was no clear delegation of authority, as he was used to in the private sector, so he had a hard time understanding \u201chow decisions are made, who\u2019s got authority to make what decisions and who\u2019s accountable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson defended the freeze as a way to get managers to reassess their staffing needs and to avoid having new hires be fired in short order if the budget went further south. He also hoped the move would buy him time to lobby the Office of Management and Budget and \u201csee if I couldn\u2019t change their mindset on it where they were just slashing and burning it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fifteen of the overhaul recommendations were funded by Congress and implemented, though there\u2019s more room for modernizing State Department management practices and embassies.<\/p>\n<p>Though necessary, Tillerson concedes the pace of his revamp may have been \u201ca little too aggressive\u201d for many \u201cand the level of change was so dramatic for a lot of people in what was already a very significant change from the Obama administration to the Trump administration, which was also dramatic and traumatic,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have a full appreciation probably for just how emotional it would become for some people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked about his approach to negotiations, whether in the private sector or as the nation\u2019s top diplomat, Tillerson said he spends 80 percent of his time in preparation. A key to successful talks?\u00a0 Knowing precisely what your objectives as well as those of your counterparts. \u201cIt all goes back to people\u2019s hopes and aspirations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I did a lot of preparation to understand socially and historically, \u2018what journey have these people been on that brought them to this point and what are their hopes and their aspirations out of this possibility that they could have this great economic opportunity, or in the case of a diplomatic discussion, what are their hopes and their aspirations that one day they can have a peaceful border or stop the bombing,\u2019 \u201d said Tillerson. \u201cI\u2019ve seen more negotiations fall apart over an inability to understand those social aspects and those aspirations than fell apart over the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In stark contrast to Trump\u2019s style, Tillerson emphasized transparency, predictability and trustworthiness as critical to his negotiating method, whether it\u2019s with allies or with enemies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery successful negotiation is defined as both parties leaving with an acceptable outcome,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you ever think about a negotiation as a win\/lose, you\u2019re going to have a terrible experience, you\u2019re going to be very dissatisfied, and not very many people are going to want to deal with you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tillerson admitted his own frustration with the nation\u2019s riven state. Asked by Burns what gives him hope these days, he said that it was America\u2019s continued evolution as a society, despite the painful, even \u201ctortuous\u201d times.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI always believe deep in those words from Lincoln, that in our deepest, darkest moments, we were able to call upon \u2018the better angels of our nature\u2019 to overcome that which we thought was so divisive we could never find affection for one another again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI watch with great anguish the mood of the country and the kind of rhetoric that goes on in public \u2026. [and] it pains me. It breaks my heart,\u201d said Tillerson. But I go back to Lincoln, \u201cand my great hope is that that is still defining of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n"}},"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":304970,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2020\/06\/study-abroad-during-arab-spring-stirs-his-passion-to-defend-democracy\/","url_meta":{"origin":286611,"position":0},"title":"Echoes of El Salvador in Egypt","author":"harvardgazette","date":"June 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The son of Latin American immigrants, Hainer Sibrian, M.P.P. \u201920, is set to launch a career as a U.S. diplomat, inspired by study abroad during Arab Spring.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rex Tillerson with Hainer 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diplomacy.","rel":"","context":"In "Nation & World"","block_context":{"text":"Nation & World","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/sherman-open-house1_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/sherman-open-house1_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/sherman-open-house1_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":340327,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2022\/03\/finding-exit-to-war-in-ukraine\/","url_meta":{"origin":286611,"position":2},"title":"Finding exit to war in Ukraine","author":"Lian Parsons","date":"March 18, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Panel of Harvard experts will explore best way to negotiate an end to the fighting.","rel":"","context":"In "Nation & World"","block_context":{"text":"Nation & 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